CSU students learn value of humanitarian engineering

Small rural villages in Cambodia's Mekong River islands are unlikely
venues for an intensive cross-cultural learning experience for Charles Sturt
University (CSU) engineering students.

Eight students last month took part in the Engineers Without
Borders (EWB) Australia 2017 Design Summit in Cambodia, one of the poorest Southeast
Asian countries, where 80 per cent of the population live in rural areas.

"The summit highlighted to the student the roles of community
development, technology and engineering in helping build capacity for
developing communities," said Dr Andrea Goncher, course manager for the CSU Engineering
degree.

"Over their 14 days in Cambodia, we wanted the students to further
develop personal and professional skills and apply these in a developing
countries.

"The program is designed to help students recognise good
development practices while applying human-centred design principles based on local
community needs."

Initially, the first- and second year students learned about
community life in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, before travelling to and
staying in villages on islands in the Mekong River, in Kratie Province.

During their village stays, students engaged with the
human-centred design process by discovering community strengths, empathising
with the end users of the students' design ideas, and developing ideas for the
community to help them build capacity to design and improve waste management
practices and water quality and distribution, for example.

"The students were able to apply their skills in a development
context and learn about sustainable development practices," said Dr Goncher,
who escorted the student group to Cambodia.

After further developing their ideas on the mainland in Kratie,
they presented their prototype design ideas to village members and stakeholders
from the Cambodian Rural Development Team.

"The Charles Sturt University students were able to work in teams with
students from around Australia and from various engineering disciplines to gather
input and feedback from the community partners on their ideas," Dr Goncher
said.

"After the
Design Summit experience, CSU student engineers learned first-hand how to embed
people-centred values in engineering. They have left the EWB Design Summit program
better prepared to tackle important global issues."

The EWB Design Summit is an international study program where Australian
university students and in-country community
organisations collaborate to develop human-centred engineering
ideas, sharing knowledge with local communities, and learn about
development in Asia-Pacific countries.

The second year student engineers
have now commenced four years of placements across regional and rural NSW.

Australian students participating in the 2017 EWB Summit in
Cambodia were sponsored by the Australian government through scholarships under
the New Colombo Plan, which supports Australian undergraduates to undertake
study and work placements in the Indo-Pacific region.